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Corey Lee, who worked eight years as a top chef at the French Laundry, last year opened a restaurant that's helping to redefine fine dining. The room is chic and minimal, with white walls, gray banquettes and black resin-like tables trimmed in light wood; it exudes the tranquility of a Japanese teahouse. Lee effortlessly mixes Asian ingredients on the fixed-price and a la carte menus. He's replicated the brittle yet elastic texture of shark's fin, using hydrocolloid to produce fine threads that float in broth filled with crab, cabbage, ham and a surprise of black truffle custard underneath. Wine pairings are superb.